20 October: Hîrlău

Back in time a couple days, An Old Jewish cemetery in Hîrlău, where my maternal grandfather was born. I looked for my grandfather's name on the tombstones but couldn’t find it. Maybe this cemetery is three hundred years old. There were Jews in Moldavia as far back as the 16th century; of course there are almost none now.
I did find a woman in the far north, near the border of Ukraine who grew up in a Jewish/Roamian community, and she still speaks Yiddish. I have photos and recordings which will come to the blog soon.
The people in the photo here are cemetery’s caretaker and his family. Poor, the house they live in which is more or less a largish a shack in the cemetery.
The roof is partly plastic sheeting. They said they are receiving very little support from the Romanian Jewish Community. Man, people are so poor here. Don't mean to be a wet blanket but that is the biggest impression in rural Moldavia. Here, I'll lighten up a little. On the bright side they don't eat any processed foods.

next: 20 October: Judetul (county) Botoşani; Constantin Lupu